Review Text

Catalog read at the Members Lounge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.This beautiful small exhibit is a perfect example of what treasures the Met can bring to its visitors. The indigenous Andean and Mesoamerican peoples of Latin America represented buildings in small clay and stone models of houses and temples apparently for funerary and burial rites, and to honor important people at shrines.The exhibit is enclosed in its own smallish shrine and comprises artifacts from cultures of the Mayas, Aztecs, Recuay, and Nayarit, with objects dating back to the first millennium B.C. There is a five inch high -inch-tall stone Mezcalan temple for example, without great detail but nonetheless quite powerful.A 12 inch high Nayarit house model depicts a feast scene on the upper level, while the family’s dead, who would have been traditionally buried under the building, are below. The piece is one of the most complex architectural models to originate from the ancient Americas, according to the exhibit catalog; it is so detailed that the Met furnished visitors with small flashlights to examine the interior.A similar sized Nayarit a ball-court game diorama in clay depicts a game that occurred between 200 B.C. and 500 A.D. At the top is a row of onlookers watching players at the base. One player is hitting the ball with the side of his leg.There are a number of smaller objects, and all of the pieces in the exhibit are described with some analysis of their functions and with excellent photographs in this excellent guide to the exhibit.Try to see the exhibit before it leaves in September; this catalog is an excellent memory device and will also give you very good impression of the treasures themselves if you can't see them in person.Robert C. RossFebruary 2016